Pope Francis has been named person of the year, beating out President Assad of Syria and NSA leaker Edward Snowden. He joins last year’s winner President Obama, Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg among others.
It’s the second time a head of the Catholic Church has been named in Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.” Pope John Paul ll was nominated the most influential person in 1994. According to Time magazine’s managing editor, Nancy Gibbs the spiritual leader has been hailed as a liberalizing influence on Catholicism with his emphasis on easing global poverty and his progressive views on hot-button social issues such as gay rights.
Gibbs went on to praise Francis “For pulling the papacy out of the palace and into the streets.” She went on to say, “rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly-young and old, faithful and cynical-as has Pope Francis. In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conservations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power.” For employment in the Roman Catholic Church, click here.
The following pictures demonstrate Pope Francis’ actions that made people vote to have him made Person of the Year.
1. He spoke out against frivolous spending by the Church
2. He invited a boy with Downs Syndrome for a ride in the Popemobile
3. He embraced and kissed Vinicio Riva
4. He denounced the judgment of homosexuals
5. He held a major ceremony at the chapel of a youth prison
6. He urged the protection of the Amazon Rainforest
7. He personally called and consoled a victim of rape
8. He snuck out of the Vatican to feed the homeless
9. He auctioned his motorcycle to benefit the homeless
10. He acknowledged that atheists can be good people
11. He condemned the global financial system
12. He fought child abuse
13. He condemned the violence of the Syrian civil war
14. He redirected employee bonuses to charity
15. He spoke out against the Church’s ‘obsession’ with abortion, gay marriage and contraception
16. He called for cooperation between Christians and Muslims
17. He took part in a selfie
18. He invited homeless men to his birthday meal
19. He refused to send away a child who had run on stage to hug
Hopefully the actions of the pope, rather than the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, will continue to help provide an example of how to live generously, with good will to others.
Images by Time Magazine